Herb Andersen There is a problem with our legal system, our lawyers depend upon precedent and court rulings and past cases, however all of which are subject to as much twisting and lying, cheating and misinterpretation as any lawyer, cop or judge can get away with. When you take a class in order to understand you rights and obligations in order to carry a weapon it is all based upon theory, and the idea of the instructor whom you are taking the class from, and he/she is a gun person.
In the real world, what your instructor told you will have no baring upon how you will be treated by the legal system, on a given day and the mood of the cop or the DA may tip the scale in one way or another, and that is the problem. The best example is the current problem with the FBI, people who are paid to be impartial have an agenda, they twist the facts to prove the outcome they wish rather than letting the facts lead them to the outcome of the case with the actual facts.
Therefore, the "reasonable man" standard will change depending upon the person who is determining what that man would be, in this case and at this time. So, the truth of the matter is the system is rigged against you by people who have made up their mind before they even know your name, do not even think you will get justice, that blind woman holding a scale weighing the facts and only the facts with out past experience and prejudice!
That said, you will have no control as to how badly you will be hosed, the only thing you do have control of, in a small way, is how you will act when you are forced to defend yourself. You see, even if you act first and are justified doing so, there is another guy in the fight and what he does and how you change your fight so that you will overcome may force you into that questionable area that the lawyers love, the main thing is that you win, that it is your story which is being told and evaluated by people who are not interested in your well being.
When you are forced into a fight, you are actually forced into 2 fights and you must win both, the first is physical, the second is legal and neither will be fair. If every battle plan is going to change due to how Mr. Murphy and your enemy react you must be willing to react on the fly and hope that you are the winner in both fights. Isn't it sad that the people whom you pay with your tax money will be the enemy who presents your biggest financial loss or loss of liberty, but you do have to fight!